Panamerican Proceeding

Lend me an ear and you will hear the rants and raves of this volunteer. "Nothing is stronger than the heart of a volunteer" says Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle (parden the pun), but perhaps no one is crazier either. Why do we care so much? Herein lies a glimpse of my Pan-American experience.

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Location: Bocas Del Toro, Panama Este, Panama

The proceeding 'Panamerican' is a Master's International Student and Peace Corps Volunteer. Disclaimer: Contents are the author's viewpoints only, (need to stress only), and many may have been written on particularly poor days.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

What makes this so hard

They don't see their potential. Their culture has been stripped to void. I'm perpetually sick. I'm not earning any money. I'll be spending three birthdays down here (25, 26, 27), prime years of my life for girlfriends and dating, but I have no one to date. I'm forced to eat unhealthy: mostly all fried foods or packaged and very, very little fruits and vegetables. I'm sleeping on a 2" pad. I'm constantly stared at, I'm constantly dirty, I'm constantly being bit. They aren't working, let along talking to each other. When I try to have a meeting to address the problem, no one comes. I'm overcharged for everything. When I'm happy I'm happy for 5 minutes. When I'm sad I'm sad for 5 days. They aren't any sports in my community, no where to exercise. My closest neighbor and two great friends just left. To get away from this area and over the mountain range to an actual city costs several day's pay. I eat too much because cooking is something to do. My house has been broken into 3 times already. Our water project, which should have been done by now, won't be finished until next year - that's if we start now and work continuously, which we won't. I've lost my ambition to travel. All the half-way educated people have moved out, the smart ones that remain are smart enough not to get involved with the rest of the community. I'm becoming dumber because my brain isn't challenged. My Spanish is crawling along at snail's pace, but I'm already better than half my community (since they hardly ever speak Spanish). I'm lethargic and numb. I've lost all ambition to take on new projects. People give me advice, expect me to use it, but have have no idea of my situation. I'm incredibly, incredibly bored and I have over a year to go.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey pal, hang in there. You're doing a tremendously good thing and I truly believe that good things happen to good people. It won't be long when you'll be back here in the states and you can regain some normalicy in your life. The world should have more people like you to help and share ideas with a community that lacks guidance and intelligence. Keep the faith buddy

Take care of yourself,
Travis

9:37 AM  
Blogger Holly said...

It will all be alright in the end, Just "don't go donuts!"

5:45 PM  

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